RESTAURANTS
Chima Brazilian Steakhouse -- a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based chain that features choreographed gauchos serving meat on skewers -- plans to open late this summer in uptown Charlotte. Pursuit Group Charlotte's Jim Donnelly said Chima's owners are remodeling about 18,000 square feet on three levels of The Trust condo building at 139 S. Tryon St. for the restaurant.Chima (pronounced "She-ma") will have a bar and private dining room on the second level, a main dining room on the first floor and kitchen equipment in the basement, he said.
Signs announcing the restaurant cover the streetfront windows of the seven-story building, which Donnelly is converting to eight $1 million-plus condos.
Servers wearing traditional loose-fitting South American cowboy trousers carve skewers of beef, pork and lamb at tableside and keep meat coming until patrons tell them to stop.
Donnelly said the owners visited Charlotte and saw an opportunity to create a signature restaurant within footsteps of the Trade-and-Tryon streets intersection.
The chain's other restaurants are in Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Vienna, Va. (the Washington, D.C., area). -- doug smith
Antitrust suit filed in Puerto Rico
SHIPPING
Shipping companies allegedly conspired to inflate prices for transporting goods to Puerto Rico and added illegal surcharges, according to an antitrust lawsuit filed in the island's U.S. District Court.
The suit seeks unspecified damages from several U.S. companies, including Charlotte-based Horizon Lines Inc. It comes amid an FBI investigation into pricing practices of ocean carriers operating in the territory. -- Associated Press
